Video download link | md5sum dee2cd6893c97f1cd360788441b92ca6 2022 and the Social Control Media Tumble Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Social Control Media (or social control networks) is a failed experiment which left society worse off; it's time to press "eject"

THE FOSS-centric blogosphere has lot to say about Mastodon; some rightly bring up caveats and misconceptions about Mastodon.

I myself left Mastodon (and Pleroma) almost 2 years ago, having lost several accounts. All the instances in which I had an account no longer exist and having researched what it takes to run one (technically, not even factoring in the moderation tasks) I decided to never ever get involved in Mastodon... ever again. People invited me and I politely declined.

Almost a year ago I quit the remainder of Social Control Media, having come to the conclusion it was dying anyway and was rapidly becoming a waste of time/effort.

Looking back, not only was this decision correct; it was years overdue, i.e. I wish I had done this years earlier!

"Many politicians rely almost entirely on Facebook and Twitter for public presence/visibility."Facebook lost about 80% of its "market value" in just one year and Twitter is collapsing at an alarming rate (the latest report we saw is entitled "Musk warns of Twitter bankruptcy as more senior executives quit"). This is not a joke; this will have profound impact on many people, companies, and countries. Many politicians rely almost entirely on Facebook and Twitter for public presence/visibility.

There aren't just concerns about whether those platforms go offline, partly or fully. There are legitimate, well-founded (with a growing body of evidence already) concerns associated with ownership. Do "Democrats" (politicians on the "corporate left" in the US) realise that if they still "tweet" they do so while 'bossed' by a Republican called Elon Musk? Musk may brand himself "libertarian" or whatever, but days ago he alienated millions of Twitter users by unmasking himself as a booster of the violence party, a supporter of political militancy; he is also a cheerleader of "regime change" abroad (for natural resources of other countries; he wants to destroy other countries for Tesla batteries).

Do people want a 'boss' like this? He wants them not only to work for him 'for free'... he wants to charge them a hefty monthly fee during economic crises. He can ban and hide "tweets" or users (at arbitrary whims)... some users report that this is already happening. We'll see more and more of that (see Daily Links).

"Mr. Musk says he wants to authenticate all users. Well, that would eliminate many dissident accounts overnight."Regarding Facebook, an associate has said that it doesn't need so many people anymore now that the election has been tripped up properly. "Also," he said, "people realize that although addicted social control media is a waste of time."

We spoke about other long-term harms of social control media participation. People classify themselves for discrimination/punishment at the hands of future tyrants by enabling creation of "lists". "Many countries have laws prohibiting making such lists especially when they encompass politics or ethnicity or religion," the associate said. "Facebook does this explicitly as well as being able to generate more fine-tuned lists by aggregating several of the data points they collect on people. They not only do they have those lists as explicit data points but also can generate them and worse on the fly."

Facebook already has some "real name" policies; is Twitter next to become as dangerous as Facebook? Mr. Musk says he wants to authenticate all users. Well, that would eliminate many dissident accounts overnight.

"Musk neither knows what he is doing nor cares," our associate noted. "It is a mystery how he or his sponsors are going to recover $44bn from what's left of Twitter. Maybe throw a few more elections over time. Like they've helped do so far. Eliminating 'dissident' accounts would be a happy side effect for his sponsors. They have an active history in suppressing dissidents, with or without the use of tandoori ovens."

"Some people openly say that they're quitting Twitter and going (back) to blogging."For those who've missed it, a lot of the money for Musk's takeover of Twitter came from the "royal" family of Saudi Arabia, which has a long tradition of controlling Twitter in the shadows, both from outside and the inside. Twitter tolrates some forms of political extremism (until it's way too much), but not others.

People who have witnessed the ills of social control media can see this happening over and over again. There's no benign or benevolent social control network; the whole paradigm is flawed and it becomes toxic over time. Some people openly say that they're quitting Twitter and going (back) to blogging. Join these people. ⬆